Northern England – Seaham, County Durham
Distance: 17km/10 miles
Time: 5hrs
Type: Coast
Where: Linear coastal walk from Seaham to Crimdon.
Start/End: Seaham harbour (NZ432495). Crimdon caravan site car park (NZ483373).
Terrain: Coastal footpaths – mainly tracks, some paved. Some stiles, steep valley descents and beach walking.
Maps: OS Explorer 308 & 306; Landranger 88 & 93.
Turn east off the A1 in County Durham and you stumble upon one of England’s forgotten corners. This is a stark postindustrial landscape, yet infinitely varied and drably beautiful. Coal was once king here, but no more. The Durham coalfields under the North Sea have closed but they left a legacy: for 150 years, coal waste was simply dumped on the beaches, smothering the sand to a depth of 30ft in places. The brutalised shoreline was subsequently employed by sci-fi film directors in search of alien landscapes, such as in Alien 3. The sea has slowly washed away that mining waste and a huge regeneration project, Turning the Tide, has transformed the area’s superb coastline into a virtue – revealing the charms that made Lord Byron and Lewis Carroll linger here – and establishing a breathtaking coastal route from Seaham to the edge of Hartlepool.
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